Quit Wasting Your Time: How to Better Qualify Leads

As a salesperson, you need to be extremely careful about how you spend your day. If you take several hours to prepare a proposal for someone who was never serious about buying from you, then you have wasted a lot of time. You can minimize these types of situations by better qualifying your opportunities, says Paul Cherry, author of Questions That Sell: The Powerful Process for Discovering What Your Customer Really Wants (AMACOM, 2006). How? Use Cherry’s three-step process to determine whether you have a real sales opportunity:

1. Agree. Find something in the prospect’s response to which you can agree. Agreement is a way to connect with someone on a very basic level.

2. Clarify. After agreeing to some part of the prospect’s initial statement, get as much detail as possible about the response. Ask one or two questions to gather information about the current situation, the decision-making process at the company or any concerns the person has about their current vendor.

3. Legitimize. Determine if the prospect is sincere or just trying to get rid of you politely. Ask a question that will project your prospect into the future and will allow you to make evident any potential obstacles to an agreement.

1. “Send me the information.” Someone expressed an interest in your product at a trade show and you follow up with a phone call a day or two later. When you get through to the person, he says, “Send me a brochure.” Using the three-step response to better qualify this person, you might say something like this: “I would be glad to forward you our brochure (Agree). So that I get you the right information, what specifically are you looking for? (Clarify)” Once he has explained his needs, then you go to step three, Legitimize: “Based on what you’ve told me, I’m going to put together some information that you’ll receive by Monday. Assuming you need some time to look over the information, how about if I call you back on Thursday to discuss this matter?” If you get agreement here, Cherry recommends continuing with the legitimizing process by saying, “Okay, let’s assume for a moment that Thursday is here. You have reviewed our information and you like what you see. What do you feel will happen next?” If you get vague, non-committal answers at any step don’t waste further time with this person, says Cherry.

2. “Call me back in three months.” Here, you need to determine if there’s a legitimate reason the prospect wants you to call back at a later date or if he’s simply trying to get you off the phone. Start by agreeing to the request to call back later and set a specific time for your return phone call. Then clarify and legitimize. Depending on the situation, you might say something like, “As I plan my next call with you, what will be occurring between now and the next four weeks, when we talk?” Or if the prospect is postponing the call in order to get another person to handle it, you might say, “What do you perceive will be of most interest to Sue?” Then: “Assuming Sue likes what she hears, what do you think will happen next?”

These kinds of questions should give you enough information to know if the prospect is legitimate or a waste of your time, says Cherry. If you sense it’s the latter, drop him and move on. Your time is too valuable to spend on anything less than a viable, profitable opportunity.